Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza uses this gear to photograph the president every day.
Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza packs light to photograph the president. Sam Kaplan
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Your Instagram will never be as cool as Pete Souza’s. He travels the world with the president—shooting candids of Angela Merkel (in virtual-reality goggles) and Steph Curry (cringing in board-game defeat as Obama cheers). His globe-trotting job is 24/7. For the ever-shifting circumstances, he has the ultimate stripped-down kit, shown above, to perform in every condition. Even if you’re not POTUS-worthy, you would do well to shoot with these.

Two Canon 5D Mark III's

Sam Kaplan

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Canon 135mm f/2.0 L (left) and 35mm f/1.4 L

Canon 135mm f/2.0 L (left) and 35mm f/1.4 L

These lenses don’t zoom, but they take advantage of more available light. The 35mm is for up close, and the 135mm is for when Souza needs to keep his distance.
Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L II

Sam Kaplan

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Fujifilm X100T

Sam Kaplan

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This article was originally published in the July/August 2016 issue of Popular Science, under the title “Photog In Chief.”

Gear
Canon
fujifilm